Archangel's Resurrection (Guild Hunter #15)(89)

Not wishing to crack the riverbed if they had no desire to rise, she put her hand to the gritty surface of the bed and spoke to her second with the power of her mind. Auri, will you wake? The world is an interesting place, I promise. There’s been a war, a Cascade, and Cassandra even woke up. Now, I need your help to assist in the rebuild.

Silence without end.

Zanaya ramped up her mental voice to maximum and repeated her words as well as adding a few more—throwing in as much startling and intriguing information as she could in an effort to lure her friend out of Sleep.

Ouch, Zan. A voice so familiar it made time rush backward in a roar. Why are you shouting?

Zanaya tempered her tone. You’ve been Sleeping a long while. Wasn’t sure you hadn’t gone deaf.

You’re not funny, my friend, was the grumbling response, Sleep yet heavy in Aureline’s voice. Did you say an archangel made the dead walk?

And that isn’t even the strangest thing to happen. She turned me into a mummy. I wish I could wring her neck but the others already obliterated her.

A mummy? Aureline sounded wide-awake. You’ve kept the promise of waking me to an interesting world.

Auri? I ask for you to stand by my side—but only if your heart wound does not cause you to bleed.

It exists still. Will always exist. But . . . the edges are no longer serrated. Pain in her friend’s voice, but not the broken agony that Zanaya had heard before she lay down to Sleep. Let me see if Meher wishes to wake. If he doesn’t, I’ll stay with him. Will you be very angry, Zan?

No, Auri. Never with you. But I’ll curse Meher with every breath.

Ah, so no change then.

Smile hot with emotion, Zanaya waited for her second to speak to her love.

The answer, when it came, was in Meher’s deeper tone. Zan, you were turned into a mummy?

Of course he’d fixate on that fact. Perhaps it was my destiny as Queen of the Nile. Her people had, after all, invented the mummification process.

Snorting laughter from both of them, a sound beloved that made her grin.

We’re waking, Zan, Auri said after they’d caught their breath. It’ll take time. I feel . . . heavy. Like I’m waking from an afternoon nap gone too long and deep. We’ve Slept eons, haven’t we?

Yes. She’d let Auri discover exactly how long once she was up and functional. Take all the time you need, my friend. Alexander will alert me if there’s trouble of a kind that needs my attention. Elsewise, I’ll remain here.

Of course you and Alexander remain a unit. Auri’s words held no surprise whatsoever. But did you say something about Cassandra waking up?

Well . . .

Wait, wait. Auri laughed. Tell me when I’m fully awake.

Happiness a blaze in her blood, Zanaya took her place on the bank of the Nile, her gaze on the nourishing waters of the river that might as well be her blood flowing outside her body, it was so much a part of her. Everywhere the Nile traveled, it left behind life rich green and lands fertile—without its generosity, this part of her territory would be an arid and lifeless place.

Zanaya drew in a long breath, taking in the earthy scent of the river.

Alexander had often teased that she loved her Nile more than she loved him. Never could that be; she loved him more than existence itself—and this time around, they’d get it right.

A nagging voice that was a ghostly ricochet of her mother’s whispered doubts and passive asides. They hadn’t managed to make it work over so many thousands of years. What had changed now?

“An acceptance that we can die,” she said aloud, because it needed to be spoken.

She and others of her kind were used to having no real concept of time. To them, mortal lifetimes were of no moment. And yet . . . She’d seen mortals fight with courage and passionate conviction not just in this last war, but in wars before. She’d witnessed their bravery and she’d witnessed their grief.

All of it so potent, so raw.

When, prior to this waking and the stripping of her walls, was the last time she’d been so open to emotion, to the world . . . to Alexander? Sadness washed over her when she realized she couldn’t remember.

We need to shatter the hourglass for it is a seductive cage that keeps us stuck in time.

She’d been more right in saying that than even she’d understood at the time.

Movement in her peripheral vision, Aureline and Meher rising from the tunnel of water. They wore only the simple tunics in which they’d lain down to rest, their feet bare and their only jewelry the amber each had given the other: Aureline’s was embedded into a metal cuff that fit snugly around her wrist, Meher’s a single earring that he’d never once taken out.

Zanaya’s pulse speeded up, her throat locking. “Auri.” A rasp.

They embraced with fierce affection as Zanaya allowed the churning waters of her river to fall back into place. And when they drew apart, she did the same with Meher. Their relationship would never be the same as the one she had with Auri, but she did deeply respect and value him—even more so for the eons through which he’d shared his mate’s heart with Zanaya.

Many found it difficult to accept such a cherished friendship in their beloved’s life.

Alexander never had.

A reminder from the part of her that was oddly young and hopeful after her long Sleep. She loved Alexander for so many reasons, one of which was that he accepted that a person could have many loves in their life. He’d loved his parents, his brother, and his son, now loved his grandson. She loved Auri and perhaps she even loved Meher a little.